A digital camera captures and stores image information digitally representing an image seen through a lens of the digital camera. The current trend in digital cameras is to reduce the size of the cameras as well as incorporating digital cameras in other devices such as cellular telephones. As the size of the camera is reduced, the size of the camera's lens system is also reduced. A small lens system creates shading issues for the camera in that the small lens system causes a bright center of the image information with vignetting towards the corners of the image.
Thus, what is needed is a method and an apparatus for robust image processing of digital camera image data which smooths out the image information to reduce the bright centers and lighten the vignetted corners. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description of the invention and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and this background of the disclosure.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.